Manual of Style
The Manual of Style is not intended as an ironclad set of rules, as much as guidelines to help make our pages more uniform and our information easy to understand and edit. Only contents from professional or published work are to have an article page. Other content can be referenced in real-world or Behind the Mythos sections. Markings and prefixes Because of the varied and myriad works that comprise the Mythos as it exists today, and the extreme range of articles in the wikia, it is important to clarify for readers what information they are reading and from what sources. Such markings are considered in this wiki like a footnote or an endnote, and following reputed style guides, they should appear after punctuation marks that appear at that point of the sentence or cause unless the punctuation mark in question is a dash or a close-parenthesis mark. Real World Historic and factual information regarding authors, publications, etc. should carry the template tag at the top of the article, and will look like this: Lovecraft Myth Cycles If Lovecraft was directly involved in the story, prefer the following: : This yields: : When referencing a letter of Lovecraft, when possible, use the number from the Selected Letters of H.P. Lovecraft. e.g. Shaurash-Ho is a descendant of Azathoth ( : Selected Letters 4.633) Similarly, do the same with the Letters of Clark Ashton Smith and the Commonplace book entries. "Lovecraft Circle" Myth Cycles Articles about fictional people, places, entities, that originate from sources in the "Lovecraft Circle" should carry the template tag at the top of the article or section, and will look like this: When a notation is needed, the following markup text can be used: : This yields: : Derleth Cthulhu Mythos Articles about fictional people, places, entities, that originate from sources in the Derleth Cthulhu Mythos should carry the template tag at the top of the article or section, and will look like this: When a notation is needed, the following markup text can be used: : This yields: : Expanded Cthulhu Mythos Articles about fictional people, places, entities, that originate from sources in the Expanded Cthulhu Mythos should carry the template tag at the top of the article or section, and will look like this: When a notation is needed, the following markup text can be used: : This yields: : For RPG based content, preferably had "(RPG)" after the title of the source. Mythos Adjacent Works Articles about fictional people, places, entities, that originate from sources in the Adjacent Cthulhu Mythos should carry the template tag at the top of the article or section, and will look like this: When a notation is needed, the following markup text can be used: : This yields: : Mythos Inspired Works Articles about Lovecraftian Subjects without being part of the Mythos themselves. This can be deduced from authorial intent. The template should be used at the top of the page and will look like this: When a notation is needed, the following markup text can be used: : This yields: : Use of Language/Perspective This wiki was conceived to be a reference for the literary worlds of the H.P. Lovecraft "Cthulhu Mythos", as well as the people that made it, and the creating that continues. As such, it should be written from a "real-world" perspective. This is to say that the person writing the article first establishes whether or not they are describing a fictional person/place/thing or a real life person/place/thing, then continues the article to describe the role that it plays in the Cthulhu Mythos and its writings. For example, DO WRITE: :"Cthulhu is a fictional deity in the Cthulhu Mythos. He is described as an ancient entity of immense power that manipulates the minds of human beings from his sunken island of R'lyeh. He first appears in H.P. Lovecraft's "The Call of Cthulhu", but remains a recurring presence and force throughout the stories in the titular mythos." DO NOT WRITE: :"Cthulhu is an ancient entity of immense power that manipulates the minds of human beings from his sunken island of R'lyeh." Article Titling Article titles, when possible should be a person/place/thing in its singular form, (i.e. Deep One, rather than Deep Ones). Exceptions to this are when the proper name or group name is naturally pluralized, (i.e. The Dreamlands). Additionally, as with The Dreamlands and The Necronomicon, while the common usage is to add the article "The" in front of the nouns, the article titles should not contain these. Exceptions should be made in the case of real world story or book titles, (i.e. "The Festival") Prefer to use the more famous name for the article and not necessarily the most accurate or complete. It is very simple to correct this type of problem so that it corrects for any misusage elsewhere in the wiki. #In the incorrectly named article, enter the edit mode and copy the entirety of the article, and its code #Create a new article with the correct name #Paste all of the original content into the new article and publish #Return to the original incorrectly named article and delete all the content and replace that with the #REDIRECT New Article command Disambiguation At times it may be necessary to distinguish between articles of the same apparent name. For example, Dagon the character/deity, should be distinguished from Dagon (short story), and Dagon (2001 Film). Parentheticals should be added only when necessary and a disambiguation article and link should be placed at the beginning of the articles using the Images and image usage Efforts should be made to correctly identify the work, and properly give its information in the image file entry. Efforts should be made to contact the artist in question if the work has not otherwise been published. Due to the unofficial and "fan made" nature of this site, "Fair Use" remains a gray area that remains legally questionable. Thus some interpretations of the law may allow for the usage of imagery on the wiki, but may still violate the individual rights of an artist to withhold their work. All decisions defer to the artist, and a reasonable efforts should be made to contact the artist and secure express written communication when possible. In such cases, images should not be modified in any way unless permission is so given by the artist, (i.e. permission has been given in some cases to blur regions of images that might be considered offensive). Although fanart is allowed on this wiki, it is preferable to use those that are about the subject from authorial intent or from professional publication. *Use common-sense English words to title your picture, not alphanumeric strings that make more sense to a computer than a person. Note that if any image with the same title has already been uploaded, it will be replaced with your new one. *You must balance the need for a clear image against the need for a fast-loading image. Remember that your image is most often going to be viewed at a size no greater than 420px in width. Therefore, it is a waste of bandwidth to upload a picture which is more than 3 times that width. Likewise, files which are bigger than 100kb can cause people with slow internet connections to have slower page loads. Consequently, you should try to keep your images to no more than about 800px and 100kb in size. *Crop images to show just the relevant subject. Again, remember that your image is going to be displayed at no more than about 420px. The more tightly it is cropped on the subject, the better it will display. *Do not upload another version of a file that is materially the same as the one which previously existed. The rule of thumb for uploading a new version of an existing file is, "Does this file look distinctly better than the original image at 420px?" Whether it looks better at full size is not to a factor in deciding whether to upload a new version of an image. Images used on maintenance templates are exempt from this ruling. *Don't put photo credits in articles or on the images themselves; put them on the image description page. *Crop your photos so that network logos, if present on the original screenshot, do not appear. Also, crop any and all black borders from images. *Use JPG format for photographic images, like screenshots and telesnaps, and for comic images. Use the SVG format where possible for icons, logos, drawings, maps, flags, and such. PNG format is also acceptable as an alternative to SVGs, and can be especially convenient when you require an image to have a transparent background. *GIF and BMP formats are strongly discouraged. *Add a good alternative text for images. Categories Articles should use the lowest possible subcategories when being labelled to avoid cluttering this space with parent categories. Discussion Except in the most obvious of cases, community discussion is required to declare a story invalid. For instance, stories which are considered without a commercial license, although they can be released for free, could be considered non professional works and belonging to fanfiction. In talk pages and discussion boards, users have to assume good faith in each others. Sub-Manuals For the obvious reasons of keeping this page cleaner and easier to use, below are a list of Manuals pertaining to specific categories: Manual of Style/Character or Entity Category:Administration of this site